I use Crawford Satellite and Electronics for my antenna work. They're located in Pinole, California, but serve the entire Bay Area. Phone: (510) 758-1445.

They've done work for me twice and do a good job. Take a look at my antenna page listed below to see what they've done for me.

Larry

With respect to Larry, my experience with the above installer was not good.
They canceled the appointment the day before the scheduled installation ("shoulder injury"), saying it would be a few more weeks. I told them to get back in touch when ready. They never did. I would avoid.

In another thread Trip posted a link to a survey by Free Press where they took a survey of public TV stations to see if they were participating in the auction or not. I thought it would be interesting to look at the local stations.

Yes, the station is participating. (It's not known if that means selling, volunteering to move or channel sharing.)
No, the station is not participating.
Refused to answer, usually based on the station thinking they were prohibited from answering. We don't know.
Did not respond. Again we don't know.

Yes - KCSM (No surprise there. They been dying to sell for years.)
No - KQED, KQEH, KQET (I would have been surprised if it had been yes.)
Refused - KVIE, KRCB (My guess is that KVIE is a "no." No idea on KRCB.)
Did not respond - KMTP (My guess is that they are a "yes.")

Thursday is the end of the Stage 3 reverse auction so we should see the final price for that round shortly thereafter.

I am in Fairfax (Marin) up on a ridge but without line of site to SF. YOu can get line of site to SF but you have to go a couple hundred feet. But generally I have good visibility, no trees, not in a canyon etc. Trying to figure out what kind of setup I would need to get the local channels. (Xposted from main hdtc tech as recommended, i think)

Looks like they are having problems, but do not rule out problems at your location.

I recently lost KTVU VC 2 RF 44 due to some of the trees loosing their leafs and other trees keeping their leafs on longer, something that will be corrected soon. (~1972 leafs were off the trees by November 1, now some remain on until January.)

Some heavy early rains in October has changed the leaf drop schedule causing severe multi-path forcing me to use another antenna for KTVU VC 2 RF 48. (After connecting an antenna to the fourth of my HDHR tuners which I did not realize was disconnected.)

You should have good reception if you point a Winegard HD7698P with an AD Juice preamp at Sutro Tower (156 deg). You may even receive the stations in Fremont.

Chuck

I got the HD7694P (smaller) and just set it on my deck pointed in the general direction and get all the stations I wanted and more so that is pretty good. I would imagine it will do better pointed more exactly with a compass and 15' higher on the roof but I might try putting it in under my deck first as it is way easier. Just thought people might like to know the progress.

Stage 3 of the TV spectrum incentive auction has now concluded, with broadcasters seeking $40.3 billion for 108 MHz of spectrum, and wireless providers bidding $19.7 billion for the 80 MHz designated for sale. Read more from TV Technology here:

It looks like KFTL had an equipment problem that they have to work on. As of this morning they're only transmitting 28-1 through 28-4. -5, -10 and -15 are missing.

The latest:
KFTL 28-10 and 28-15 are back up.
And ... 28-10 has ditched the KFTL watermark. My prayers have been answered!
Congratulations engineers on a job well done.
I've got some weird aspect ratio on 28-10 on one of my sets, but that could be me.

I got the HD7694P (smaller) and just set it on my deck pointed in the general direction and get all the stations I wanted and more so that is pretty good. I would imagine it will do better pointed more exactly with a compass and 15' higher on the roof but I might try putting it in under my deck first as it is way easier. Just thought people might like to know the progress.

I tend to go on the conservative side when recommending antennas so it's no surprise the 7694 is working for you. It's only a few dB less gain than its big brother. Reception might change under different atmospheric conditions (not rain or wind) so you should test it out for a couple weeks before you make the final location decision.

Are you able to receive any of the South Bay stations (14, 36, 48, 54) from up there in Fairfax with the 7694?

Larry

I'm a little sketchy on the virtual vs real channels, but I think so. I get 80 channels total. I'll see if I can attach photos of the channel list from the tv. I also do have a better location in fairfax than probably 95% of the town which I'm sure helps.

I tend to go on the conservative side when recommending antennas so it's no surprise the 7694 is working for you. It's only a few dB less gain than its big brother. Reception might change under different atmospheric conditions (not rain or wind) so you should test it out for a couple weeks before you make the final location decision.

Chuck

Already put it on the roof. I tried under the deck and lost 70% of the channels. I was happily surprised how easy it was to mount it on the roof. Took maybe an hour. I haven't routed the cable properly yet (have it going in a window to test with) but the roof portion is done. Fairly confident I haven't added a leak as well (pitch pads and silicone sealant). Antenna has a ground wire on it. Haven't done the lower half yet but that is much less scary than being on the top of the roof - at least for me.

A few stations I get some weird flickering / artifacts on - but they seem like duplicated channels (2-1 is followed by another 2-1 for example, both listed as 720p) and one of them tends to work fine and one has some little artifacts. Not sure what is up with that, but pretty happy so far!

A few stations I get some weird flickering / artifacts on - but they seem like duplicated channels (2-1 is followed by another 2-1 for example, both listed as 720p) and one of them tends to work fine and one has some little artifacts. Not sure what is up with that, but pretty happy so far!

KTVU has a translator in Fremont on RF 48 so you might be seeing that as a duplicate channel 2.

I'm a little sketchy on the virtual vs real channels, but I think so. I get 80 channels total. I'll see if I can attach photos of the channel list from the tv. I also do have a better location in fairfax than probably 95% of the town which I'm sure helps.

Those are virtual channel numbers. The first number is a separate transmitter and the "dash" numbers are the sub channels. I don't see any stations from Mt. San Bruno, especially KNTV 11 and KKPX 65 (ION). TV Fool shows you are severely blocked to Mt. San Bruno. KNTV 11-3 is being carried on the KSTS 48 transmitter as a sub channel. You are getting all the Fremont stations with the possible exception of the KGO translator on RF 35. Since the virtual channel numbers are the same for KGO on RF 7 from Sutro Tower you can't tell which transmitter you are receiving. Do you have a diagnostic screen to check the real channel?

I see you're receiving KTVJ which is on low VHF channel 4. Your antenna doesn't cover low VHF but the transmitter is on nearby Mt. Tam and your TV Fool report shows it as one of your stronger stations.

Sagefool: You're new antenna is working very well for you! I was surprised to see that you're able to receive all of the South Bay stations -- the ones I asked about -- and even more surprised that you're receiving the low power stations (1, 27 and 48) from down there. You're also receiving channel 42 which transmits from Mt. Diablo. As Chuck mentioned, you're not receiving the stations from Mt. San Bruno (11, 26, 28 and 65), nor are you receiving the station from Novato (68). Mt. San Bruno is blocked for you, so there's nothing you can do to cure that problem. Novato 68 is off the back of your antenna, so it shows that the antenna has good rejection to the rear, and that's good. Congratulations on the great report!